Born in Spain to a Bolivian father and Spaniard mother, Hector Guerra grew up in two separate worlds, one in which he was too European for Latinos and the other in which he was too Latino for Europeans.
But with time, and after having traveled the world with his Pachamama Latin Hip Hop crew, the MC and producer learned to make the most out of his upbringing. With Amor, Guerra’s latest album release, the artist falls in love again with the sounds of cumbia, salsa, charangos and, of course, his hip-hop.
“As a child I wanted to emulate my father and embrace all the music he would bring with him from Bolivia,” said Guerra. “But as I became a teenager I picked up rap just like all the other kids my age. Now that I’m getting older, I’m picking up all those musical roots that I first heard as a child.”
Amor, a positive-vibe release with a fusion of Guerra’s childhood influences, is the first part of a double album. The second part of the album is the darker side of Amor and will be released in the future under the title Desde El Infierno/ From Hell. According to Guerra, Amor and Desde El Infierno/ From Hell follow the idea of the conceptual albums he learned to appreciate at a very young age. “I grew up listening to a lot of the late 70’s albums,” he said. “They were like a piece of art to me because everything from the order of the songs to the album covers were part of the concept and that’s what I wanted to do with this release.”
Bang Data, Secta Selecta, Guanaco, Marc Monster and other musical friends of Guerra collaborated in the projects, which were recorded in London, Madrid, San Francisco, L.A. and Mexico. Since sometimes those visits were only for a few days, Guerra would take advantage to work with local artists to learn about their culture and music. This helped shape his concept of producing and album that was truly a collective of sounds.
Amor can be found at Amazon.com, iTunes and Spotify. Desde El Infierno will be released later this year.
